This piece on "The Whiteness of Mastodon" is worth reading:
https://techpolicy.press/the-whiteness-of-mastodon/
One of my hopes was that if particular communities like #BlackTwitter could emerge & flourish on #Twitter -- which was not exactly built to encourage that kind of thing -- then it would actually be _easier_ for the same thing to happen on a nominally more open platform like Mastodon. This piece makes it clear that it's not that simple, & explains why.
@angusm This podcast episode was excellent! I am a new user of #Mastodon and did not know the history of racial oppression in the #fediverse. *very heavy sigh* This podcast made the ugly history clear & technically understandable.
I'm disheartened that it appears Mastodon won't be a place in which I can rebuild my #blackandstem community without experiencing significant irrational & harmful gatekeeping by instance owners. The social justice aspect of many BlackandSTEM discussions would result in unwarranted & unfair content warnings.
I'm also frustrated that Mastodon isn't behaving like a true public commons although many Mastodonians says that it does. Having listened to this podcast, I better understand this disconnect. It's surprising that this kind of disconnect exists in a time when web3 and web5 are also being developed. This shows that we humans have not truly advanced in our thinking of "community", "equality" and "inclusivity".
I realize that my response will receive a *flag* for its racial content discussion. I don't care. The truth of a situation can't be understood if sunlight isn't used as the disinfectant. This podcast puts sunlight on the inherent nature of Mastodon and is the platform's truth.
